A.N.: Thanks for all the great comments, guys. They mean a lot to us. :)
Dib didn't even know how to feel, but he let his face be taken in the irken's hands and his eyes slid shut for a few seconds before he leaned forward and pressing their lips together, softly at first and then more forcefully. He pulled Zim as close as possible, basking in the pain that rippled through him, as well as the memories both bitter sweet and victorious that weren't his behind his eyes.
The whole thing had taken less than an hour but, Dib knew it was one of the most important things he'd ever done before. Pulling back a few millimeters, he explained, "On my planet, we usually seal a marriage with a kiss."
Zim didn't protest, but instead leaned into the kiss, moving his lips clumsily and greedily. His own head was beginning to feel foggy, but he was certain of the human in front of him, so he focused on that. His ink stained fingers gripped at Dib's messy hair, clutching at anything he can hold onto, desperately.
"Maybe…just a few more. Just to be sure." He whispered against his lips with heavy lidded eyes.
"Yeah…just to…be…" Dib agreed, not even finishing before diving right back in, hoping to soak up as much of Zim as possible, sliding his thumbs across the alien's cheekbones, smudging the left over ink and blood. No thoughts entered his mind, none but consuming the alien before him, making them one in this union. It was incredible really and he didn't even notice for a second that for the first time since his birth, a thousand questions didn't invade his senses, for the first time his attention was on one thing, one person and he was content with that.
Zim panted softly at the gusto Dib put into the kiss, trying his best to return it. He was inching closer to the human, following his instinctive need to have more, to devour every inch of him. He was practically in his lap now, not even practically—he had climbed on him, wrapping his legs around Dib's waist. Their blood covered bellies were pressed together, their heaving chests breathing in time with each other.
Dib whimpered softly pulling away and smiling softly. "Aren't we giving the Control Brains a show? Maybe we should…" The he forgot again, getting lost very clichely in the alien's huge, dark eyes.
"Do you…think we can make it back?" Zim chuckled dryly before climbing off of Dib and pulling himself up. He held his hand out for the human. "Can you walk?"
Dib blinked and stood, wincing a bit at the pain in his shoulder. "Yes, I can. Let's go."
They left their mess in their wake; blood and ink for some poor sap to clean up. They didn't bother putting themselves back in order again, sneaking along the hallways, trying to avoid any other irken's prodding gaze as they scampered back to their room.
Of course, it was hard to hide their blood and inked soaked bellies as they did so. Not that Zim really wanted to hide his. Of course he wanted to flaunt his new union, his new life-mate. It was something to be proud of. But they were a mess, and that wasn't the only reason Zim wanted to hurry back to their room.
Their usual room was taken, but a nearby one was still vacant and they hurried inside.
"Now that we've gotten that taken care of," No, not yet. Zim didn't want to think about what was going to happen yet.
Dib huffed and flopped down on the sleeping pad, groaning a bit. "We should probably get some of the blood and stuff off of us." He suggested, staring up at the ceiling. A few things were slowly starting to sink in. Married. He was married. To an alien. To Zim.
There was a freaking chip in his neck that was sending things to his brain, things like Irken schooling lessons and fighting with his peers. His shoulder stung faintly, but the inked areas tingled. Maybe the ink had a healing property.
Zim nodded a bit and pushed against one of the way, where a tile gave way and sprang open. A small sink-looking area was tucked neatly inside. "Come here, I'll wash you." Zim ordered, tuning on the tap and running the water like gel over his hands. The ink would be hard to get off, but the blood washed away almost immediately.
Dib groaned and sat up, walking over to the Irken and raising an eyebrow at the magically appearing sink. He ran his fingers under the faucet and it felt like water. Could he drink it? That would be actually really awesome. The left over blood washed down the drain and it took a lot of scrubbing to get the ink off his fingers.
Zim clicked his tongue. "Cease your protests." He commanded as he brought his fingers to the boy's chest. He rubbed gently at his new wounds, working his way down his belly and rubbing away the mess as best he could. The magenta mixed with the red to make a sickly beautiful dark red, though Zim already thought human blood was strangely fascinating.
"There, better?" He asked, finally, his touch lingering around Dib's waist.
Dib's muscles tensed and relaxed with the alien's attentions, his breathing irregular, goosebumps on his skin. "Yeah.." The human replied, shakily. "Your turn." Gently, he splashed the water down Zim's torso, watching with half mesmerized eyes as trickles of colored water, dampened the Irken's uniform that was still bunched around his waist. When that was done, Dib used the hanging sleeve of his own clothes to dry Zim off.
Zim jumped a bit at the splash of cool water, but relaxed at the human's touches. He hummed a bit as Dib worked his way down his torso, and then dried him off a bit. He felt better, less sticky. He looked up at his new mate, then at the marking that he had carved on the boy's shoulder. He traced the pads of his fingers along the edges of the cuts, where the skin puffed up and reddened.
"Mm, it will heal nicely." He thought out loud.
"Heh." Dib's own eyes flickered to the matching markings that Zim had on his shoulder. "Yeah…" There was something…incredible and altogether overwhelming about seeing his name written all over Zim, his…oh gosh, husband. Mate. Partner. Wow. Throwing caution to the wind, he smirked and lightly touched the already healing wounds. Irkens healed very quickly. About four times faster than humans. He knew this because Zim did. Now, they both did. He could…speak… several languages now, he knew. Dib could speak irken now and rather fluently, if the words floating in his head were any indication.
Biting his bottom lip, Dib tried it out. "On my planet…" The words came like instinct, flowing off his tongue as though he'd spoken it his whole life. "We have this thing…called a HoneyMoon…" He had no idea what he was saying, suggesting this, wondering if it was even possible. Was that a crime? Was it weird? It was crazy. But, they'd been so god damn close, their breaths the same, their minds connecting, bodies rubbing and now his very name was scarred into the alien's skin. They were bonded in nearly every single way. Was it insane to want this too?
Zim froze when he heard those familiar words, and it took him a moment to switch from English to Irken in order to translate. But damn, he'd be lying if he said Dib speaking Irken wasn't the most attractive thing he could think of. His voice was so much kinder than any Irken he had ever met, and it made it seem almost like a whole new language altogether.
He had to blink away his astonishment before the words actually registered.
"Dib-thing, you have seen Earth from space; there is no moon of honey." He finally declared in a slow, unsure voice. Had the data transfer scrambled the poor human's mind?
Dib didn't know how to respond and was caught between giggling and blushing or letting the whole thing go. Instead, he breathed out a soft laugh and kissed the alien's cheek, sweeping his lips across his cheekbone, softly parting and closing again, sucking the whole way down until he reached the harsh edge of Zim's jaw. Here he nuzzled and suckled until it turned bright pink. With a tender lick, Dib shook his head and stood up straight.
"No…at home…humans usually consummate their marriage…do Irkens even uh…" Make love? Too cheesy. Fuck? Ick, too harsh. Have sex? Too technical. Get it on? Great, now he sounded like a comedy. Shag? He wasn't British. He struggled with the words and it showed on the teen's face.
Zim let out all his breath in a soft sigh at the feel of those lips working his delicate skin. But then Dib had to ruin it by talking. Actually…it was kind of adorable to watch the human stumble over himself looking for the right words. Zim watched with heavy lidded eyes, his hands trailing up his arms and over his shoulders.
"Even…?" Zim's face grew expectant as Dib's screwed into a contemplative expression. Spit it out, moron! What did he have to go on? He had mentioned the word consummate, and there were only a few ways Zim was aware of doing that.
"Maaate?" He drew the word out longer than it needed to be in an unsure tone as his brow furrowed. His hands turned over, palms upward, as if he were physically offering the word to him.
"Yes!" Dib nearly yelled, relieved to have a proper word and to have Zim be the one who had said it. "I mean uh…yeah. Do Irkens mate?" They kissed on rare occasions, he knew and Zim obviously felt…stuff but, was it even done?
Zim looked at Dib with an incredulous expression, one side of his lip peeled upward away from his teeth and his eyes narrowed just slightly. What kind of question even was that? Why was that…?
"Wa-wa-wait." Zim shook his head and waved his hands about, as if trying to swat the awkward situation away. "You…want…to?" Another dubious expression as he asked. Warmth rolled over his chest and worked its way up into his face. "It...is possible."
No, Zim, stop. This has already gone too far, just stop while you are ahead. "Irkens have been advised against it, however. It pulls attention away from what it really important. We don't have time to be catering to such primitive urges." He gave a short shrug. It was never anything he, himself, had experienced, of course. Not that he had ever thought about it, before now that is.
"O-oh." Dib sputtered, running a hand down the back of his neck, which felt abnormally hot. God, what an idiot. The very idea was obviously repulsive. Primitive indeed. He didn't blame Zim. Wow, stupid. "That's fine. We should uh, sleep or something." Forget about the latest in embarrassing moments. What had he been thinking anyway? Not at all.
The feelings of humiliation were strong in his gut, never mind that Zim hadn't actually done anything to cause it. It was just there, in Dib's mind. This idea brought on by years of torment and never feeling like he was good enough, even for his dad. It was almost subconscious.
And Dib was turning away from Zim, suddenly. A fit of panic before the alien sputtered after him.
"I never said no!" He huffed. Well, he never said yes, either, but it was rude of the human to assume things. But he cursed himself because he knew he should have just let it go. So why was this ache in his gut telling him to stop Dib? He was overwhelmed with the sensation of years of rejection; he could see it in Dib's eyes, and he knew what that look meant because he had been on the other side of them. And, although Zim had never experienced rejection, he knew what it was like because Dib knew. Was this that thing called empathy he had heard so much about?
Dib glanced down and then back at Zim, sighing and cupping the alien's face in his hands. "No, look. It was a stupid idea. Sorry I brought it up…it's just…well, we're connected now. I've never felt so close to anyone…ever. I know you. And you know me in a way that no one else in my entire life has ever even wanted to. You're…well you kind of stole everything else from me." Dib ignored how his hands were trembling a bit, brushing his thumbs over Zim's cheeks.
"My first kiss, first punch, first time I ever ran away from my planet to elope." He tried to make a joke of it, smiling weakly. "We're married now. And that is…so overwhelming. My mind hasn't even begun to comprehend it really. But, it also doesn't feel all that huge or scary because I know that you're here. I know I can turn to you and trust you. I know everything you've ever done before, learning you as the seconds go by and all I could think about was knowing you in this way too…in the final thing you have to take from me."
Zim's guts lurched up in his throat and he felt like if he even opened his mouth to take in a breath, they'd all come spilling out. His eyes were perfectly oval jewels as he stared at Dib in bewilderment. He…trusted Zim? Was that what he had said? Dib now knew everything there was to know about Zim, and vice versa. His non-existent eyebrows knitted together in thought. They were as close as two being could get, so why was Zim still holding back?
He scanned the room, looking for something, anything to make this less true. To take back what he had done. He worried his bottom lip and looked back at Dib, immediately regretting it. Warm colored eyes greeted his, drew him in and held him captive. Finally, Zim let out the breath he had been holding, feeling his cheeks flare all at once under Dib's touch.
"You're an idiot." He muttered to himself before leaping, wrapping his arms around the boy's shoulders. He forced their lips together in a rough kiss, throwing every crumb of resolve in the wind to blow away far from him. He wouldn't be needing it any longer.